I took a few pictures of my neighborhood coming home last night. The fall leaves are so pretty.. ^^

Coming out of the station:

Walking home, there is a soccer field nearby..

And fallen leaves litter the still-green bushes:

I find it interesting that some of the trees have already lost their leaves, most are still laden with bright orange/yellow ones, and yet others are still green. =D

I've gotten a really bad cold. It's alright after I've medicated myself, if I don't mind the runny nose/lethargy. But in the morning my throat screams with pain.. It doesn't hurt right now, but I really hope that it gets better by tomorrow morning. If not, then I'll go to the doctor on Monday because I certainly don't want it to get any worse, and I have such a delicate throat (there hasn't been a winter in Japan yet where I haven't gotten seriously sick in my throat)..

Actually, while I'm on a bad topic, I want to state that I HATE public transportation. Saving the environment = good. Cheaper = good. Disgusting smelly men crowding you out every single morning so that your arms fall asleep from being shoved against = bad. Gross salarimen smelling of pee/bo/cigarettes (sometimes all three) = bad. Men trying to fit into tiny spots so practically sitting on you = bad. Being stepped on = bad. I HATE hate hate trains. Yeah, I nearly shoved a guy yesterday morning because I was so fed up with it all, and especially his rudeness. Next time I don't know if I'll be able to shrug it off anymore, I might just explode. Just thinking about it makes me upset, and there's not much that upsets me. But people on trains can really get to me these days. *grumpy*

On the good side of things (where I'd rather be! I'm not on a train right now, so yay!), I finally saw Stardust. I don't know if it was me, and I haven't read the original book, but it was really boring. There are times when I like predictable movies as much as the next person, but this wasn't one of them. It's too bad too, because it had such good potential.

And did anybody else see the season finale of Desperate Housewives? OMG. Same thing with Heroes. I'm totally crazy for all of the Slusho references that have been popping up. Contemplating flying to the US just to see the film when it opens. There's no mention of it coming out here, but I can't really afford that I guess.. Ahh, these seasons were so short! I wish that wasn't the case. And where did my beloved Moonlight go?

Oh! But I am contemplating doing this this summer. http://www.chinastudyabroad.org/ But to stay in Shanghai they charge WAY too much and don't have any short courses. Can anyone recommend another program that's cheap and based in Shanghai?

I liked the guy on the Yamanote on Thursday who sat down next to me and proceeded to cover his nose with his hand the whole time and glare at me because he had to sit next to the smelly gaijin. Fuck you, racist guy, I had a shower just prior to getting on the damn train....

I don't mind talking too much (well, it's annoying when people are loud, but I talk when I'm with my friends, so I have no room to bitch about it), but I can't stand people pushing on me. It's so annoying! That's why I do my best to sit down on packed trains, or avoid them if possible. I had no idea that I was moving to one of the busiest lines in the city! ^^;; What I really hate is when people push on you and you're sitting down. Like they try to squish their broad bellies into a space only big enough for a 6-yr old girl. Ugh. Wanna punch them! I never move over (not that I could anyways since there's no room and that's the point) for them, just try to hold back my anger. Next time though I'm going to push on the guy really hard and see what happens.

Oh man, yeah. The trains here are never clean, never quiet, never comfy, unless you're travelling on the shinkansen or one of the other special trains, which costs serious money. It's no wonder that I get sick every winter without fail (and many times during the year). This never used to happen at all.

Every time that someone says how wonderfully polite and nice Japanese people are, I want to laugh in their face because they have obviously never been on a japanese train.

Women's only!! LOL I laugh at that! There are those cars, but they're only on select trains at select times. Never, of course, when I want them. They're only during a few hours of the "rush hour", which is certainily not the only time that it's busy. But I've seen men get on them and sit and receive nothing but an evil stare from me (not even the women nearby! If I was close I would definitely point out his mistake!). Well.. assuming that I could tell it was a man.

I've seen men dragged out by staff on the Saiko-sen (the line notorious for chikan). Always the same station they wanted to board at. One or two walk in and then move through the doors to another wagon after receiving evil stares from most of the females (though no one ever says anything).

Wow there's still leaves on some trees? When does Japan normally get snow? Here in Wisconsin we already got pretty heavy snowfall 3 times already O.o which came as a surprise to all since for the past...well I'd say 5-8 years we haven't been getting much snow, especially that early.

Also boo trains! And boo to short show seasons. But I have to say I completely support the writer's strike so I'm not gonna complain. Maybe I'll get more knitting done :3

I support the strikes too.. though boo to the networks for not hiring new writers or giving in or something. Come on, these people are worth a lot! ;_; Inconveniencing millions of fans, I think that speaks for itself!

LOL I'm glad there's not much snow here. It's gorgeous to look at, and even play in for a minute.. but otherwise, I HATE it with a passion. It's far too cold for me! Troics = win. =D Usually in Tokyo we don't get much snow at all, and only around New Years time or a little after, but that's because it's a large city, and winter is really dry. It definitely gets cold enough (though it's technically not cold enough yet).

Sorry to hear about your uh train experiences. Can't say that I can relate to them.

I'm not sure if you can find any cheap places for the Shanghai trip next summer. Isn't next summer where the Olympics '08 is held? I heard it's going to be in China and I think it might be in Shanghai since I remember seeing a flyer for one of the class short term study abroad trip where they mentioned that the fee might increase because of that.

Well, it depends on what time of day and what line you ride, but in general for 3 or 4 hours in the morning and evening the trains will be pretty packed. As in wall-to-wall people packed. For me, if I have to work in the morning, I have no choice but to ride packed trains, or trains that become packed. And there's no women-only cars on any of the trains that I usually ride. Not that it would make a difference because they're just as packed and men certainly don't have a monopoly on rudeness/smelliness. :(

Luckily for all the chikan out there, I've never had a real brush with one or seen one in action. I've had times where it seemed a little fishy but nothing that I could prove. (like guys sitting next to me have their hand on their leg and when the train bumps the back of their hand naturally brushes my thigh. It always makes me mad when that happens, and I'll put a book in between, but it's so much of an accident-looking thing that I don't know what to do really.

The woman cars are like that too.. darn.I never knew it could be that bad. I'm glad to know though, so I can be prepared or try to live in calmer place.

Yeah the leg brushing thing is kinda fishy but hard to prove. But I doubt it's accidental 100% of the time. I've had guys brush into me in a store when there was enough room to pass by a few times... some people. ><

I'm glad you haven't run into a real chikan and he's glad too I'm sure. :D